ECLECTICA CONTEMPORARY
With an increasing focus on African Art around the world, Eclectica Contemporary aims to present a carefully selected and focused collection of art from the continent that interrogates issues facing us in a globalized world. The art at Eclectica Contemporary often showcases practices and materials from art history but which push these boundaries and explore uncharted territories of representation, technique and theory.
Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Eclectica Contemporary sees itself as an African gallery with an international vision. We celebrate the diversity and depth of art making on our continent while aiming to contextualize it for a growing global market.
Our program of exhibitions shows a mix of solo shows by gallery artists alongside curated group shows. In addition, the Eclectica Contemporary exhibition space has facilities for experimental, new media and project-based works.
EXHIBITIONS
Much Love, Kelani Fatai
Much Love, Kelani Fatai Eclectica Contemporary is pleased to end of the year on a gentle note with a new solo presentation ‘Much Love, Kelani Fatai.’ This exhibition marks the debut solo presentation of the emerging artist. Kelani Fatai was born and raised in Mushin, Lagos and had discovered his passion for art from the age of six. After his apprenticeship under two Lagos-based artists, Damilola Opedun and Muyiwa Williams, he attended the Yaba College of Technology to study art and design and acquired a Higher National Diploma in painting in 2019. The artist has surfaced his career with showcasing in multiple exhibitions internationally with notable shows ‘Feminity’ (2022)with the Lorin Gallery, ‘Black Joy’ (2022) and ‘Body Rhythms’ (2022) at TAAG Gallery, ‘Florescence’ (2022) with Mitochondria Gallery and ‘Women in Charge’ (2023) at Christopher Person. The artist has also featured in several group exhibitions ‘No Prisoners, Only Trophies’ (2023) and ‘Now you see me, Now you don’t’ (2023) at Eclectica Contemporary. Fatai’s works are inspired by nature and by his surroundings in Lagos. His works are a testament to the power and the beauty of human beings, capturing their essence, emotions and interconnectedness. Fatai believes that art has the extraordinary ability to amplify voices, bridge gaps, and shed light on the human condition. By showcasing the diverse range of emotions of love, joy, hope and pain, the artist seeks to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for the beauty of the individual. As viewers explore the exhibition, they will be confronted by a vibrant tapestry of human emotions and experiences. From the story of two lovers, to the freedom of individuals and politics of shared spaces, to the celebration of happy individuals, to the determined gaze of an immigrant, each portrait presents a narrative that is simultaneously universal and deeply personal. Ultimately, his works revolve around the beauty of elegant, albeit simply-clad, black individuals. Through the unidentified flowers in his versatile impressionist and realist paintings, he highlights the message of love and togetherness as he expresses the world through his lens. - Much Love, Kelani Fatai Download Catalogue Kelani Fatai The Beautiful Night 2023 Acrylic and Oil on canvas 152.4 x 213.4 cm (Unframed) Kelani Fatai When Love Reigns 2023 Acrylic and Oil on canvas 153 x 271 cm (Unframed) Kelani Fatai My Other Half and Soul 2023 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 151 x 183 cm (Unframed) Kelani Fatai Welcome to Texas 2023 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 121.9 x 91.4 cm (Unframed) Kelani Fatai Beautiful Outing 2023 Acrylic on Canvas 100 x 76 cm (Unframed) Kelani Fatai Love in Unity 2022 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 121.9 x 91.4 cm (Unframed) Kelani Fatai Motherland 2022 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas 121.9 x 91.4 cm (Unframed)
Wake Up, We’re Still Dreaming
William Chechet - Wake Up, We're Still Dreaming William Chechet is a visual artist based in Nigeria. The artist was born in Kano, but was raised in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, where he draws a lot of inspiration from in his artistic practice. Chechet has received a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Chechet strongly believes that art has the power to heal, inspire and bring people together. The artist is well known for his explosive Pop Art collages that overlap images of popular culture with archival imagery of his Northern Nigerian heritage and nobility, and its historical tradition of horse-riding. In Wake Up, We're Still Dreaming William Chechet pushes the technique of collage to alert his viewers and audiences on how history is constructed and framed. In taking apart everyday materials, the artist breathes a new life and function to the imagery. In this act of making Chechet captures a new truth to the photographed subject beyond the colonial gaze. The technique of collage affords the artist plenty of opportunities to re-make history and trim away the colonial inheritances of cultural images. Collage and Pop-art both serve as powerful tools for introspection and critiquing everyday structures that govern the lives of the post-colonial subject. Wake up, We're Still Dreaming relays this important message of the artist. These new bodies of work capture the world of his Wisemen where we come to see the various moments of Upsurge and Redemption being carved out by Chechet. The show will be on view at Eclectica Contemporary, Cape Town from the 2nd November until 6th December 2023. Download Catalogue Williams Chechet Wisemen 2020 Archival Giclée Print 101 x 85.5 x 5 cm (Framed) Edition 1 of 5 Williams Chechet Heavy is the Head 2020 Archival Giclée Print 86 x 99.5 x 5 cm (Framed) Edition 1 of 5 Williams Chechet We’re Still Dreaming 2023 Digital Print on hahnemühle Museum Etching 350 gsm 86 x 91.5 x 5 cm (Framed) Edition 1 of 5 Williams Chechet August Meeting 2023 Digital Print on hahnemühle Museum Etching 350 gsm 72 x 99.5 x 5 cm (Framed) Edition 1 of 5 Williams Chechet Journey of Redemption 2023 Digital Print on hahnemühle Museum Etching 350 gsm 86 x 99.5 x 5 cm (Framed) Edition 1 of 5 Williams Chechet Reclamation 2023 Digital Print on hahnemühle Museum Etching 350 gsm 72 x 99.5 x 5 cm (Framed) Edition 1 of 5
Florence Biennale 2023
Florence Biennale 2023 Eclectica Contemporary is pleased to present the work of Kenyan artist, Nedia Were at the Florence Biennale 2023. The artist specialises in oil painting and portraiture to engage nuanced notions of blackness and black beauty. This is deployed in the recurring motif of black paint and how the artist meticulously renders the sharp pigmentation of the black skin of his chosen subjects. The subtleties of tonal variation in the human skin is a conscious act of the artist to amplify and question the meaning of black beauty within our contemporary context. In response to the overt absence of the black body in art history, Were places his subjects in natural environments that offers a refreshing representation of the fluidity, growth and rebirth of the African Figure in the realm of portraiture. Through his work, Were hopes to inspire a deeper appreciation for the beauty and diversity of the African figure and to challenge the established ideas of what is considered beautiful in art. Nedia Were has featured in local and international solo exhibitions with Eclectica Contemporary, Mitochondria Gallery and the Ross-Sutton Gallery. Were has also featured in several group shows both local and international, as well as exhibiting at Cape Town Art Fair, FNB Art Joburg, Art X Lagos and AKAA Paris. Download Catalogue Nedia Were The Goddesses of the River 2023 Oil on canvas 280 x 180 cm
1-54 London 2023
1-54 London 2023 Icons In The White House Eclectica Contemporary is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Ayogu Kinsley for 1-54 London Art Fair 2023. The exhibition showcases latest developments in the artist's ongoing series Icons In The White House. Ayogu Kingsley (b. 1994) is a Nigerian artist born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1994. Kingsley developed an interest and an early aptitude for art from a young age. He began painting at eight years old and gained statewide recognition creating works for local politicians throughout specialized secondary school where he gained his Trade Test in Painting and Decorating. He studied in Enugu State College of Education where he gained a National Certificate in Education in Fine and Applied Art Education in 2017. He moved to Lagos to begin his professional art career later that year. Kingsley, who traditionally paints in oil on canvas, has gained a large social recognition since the start of his career for his hyperrealist prowess, a technique which he continues to utilize in his most recent body of work. Kingsley has since been awarded the Art X Lagos Prize (2023) and The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts (2020). The artist is currently showing in Africa Supernova (2023) at Kunsthal Kade Amersfoort Museum. Icons in the White House is an empowered expression of Black Life. Focused on the Black Icons from Africa and the African diaspora, the exhibition’s vision and purpose is to convey the precarious truth of the fragile sovereignty of blackness. Kingsley’s painted subjects are strikingly diverse, though each in their singular way conveys the artist’s dream of sovereignty. The series includes a painting of Malcolm X with his posture modelled on Barack Obama - this asks us to reflect on an alternative political reality and further compels us to rethink the canon and its erasure of Black thought. Featured alongside Malcom X are prominent figures in black history, Frantz Fanon, Chinua Achebe, Fela Kuti, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Lucky Dube, Winnie Mandela and Mohammad Ali. The potency of these works lies in the critique of the institutionalisations of white superiority and racism within the American context following the Black Lives Matter protests of which notoriously succeeds the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. The renewed visions of these leaders that had succumbed to early deaths further echoes the necropolitical and insidious underpinnings of our global economy – especially the ways in which our economy has been built upon centuries of the exploitative labour and dispossession of Black people. Cynics consider Black Portraiture a fad, a boom-bust phenomenon akin to ‘tulipomania’. It cannot be so easily discarded and disregarded. Its impact in America is especially critical, given an incipient civil war and threat to democracy. What the Black Body, Black Life, in art represents is a vital drive to diffuse and overcome this threat. Ralph Ellison’s memorable words – ‘I am an invisible man. No I am not a spook ... Nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms. I
The Night Recital – A Solo Presentation by Tshepiso Moropa
The Night Recital A Solo presentation by Tshepiso Moropa Tshepiso Moropa is a visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the crux of Moropa’s artwork is the interrogation of Blackness and its disproportionate representation in history and art. The artist works primarily in photography, digital collage and video as a means of re-membering and reimagining nuanced notions of Blackness. This is pertinent with regards to the artists use of archival images and challenging the inherited legacies of existing imagery of Black pain and suffering along with what has been erased and excluded in the archive. Moropa makes a conscious reference to the form and compositions of Baroque paintings in order to highlight the erasure of the black body. Accordingly collages are created with found archival images that depict theatrical scenes of once-forgotten ancestors against a black backdrop. In breathing a new life into these images and collages Moropa subverts the missing yet over-represented black body and further humanises the photographed subject at hand. The Night Recital features this rejuvenating body of work that breathes a new life into archival images and further creates a visual narrative of Black pleasure and lore. Download Catalogue Tshepiso Moropa The Twins 2023 Glossy paper cut outs on paper 42 x 59.4 cm Tshepiso Moropa The Joy 2023 Glossy paper cut outs on paper 42 x 59.4 cm Tshepiso Moropa The Plan 2023 Glossy paper cut outs on paper 42 x 59.4 cm Tshepiso Moropa The Jacket 2023 Collage scan 42 x 59.4 cm Tshepiso Moropa The Nightmare 2023 Glossy paper cut outs on paper 59.4 x 42 cm Tshepiso Moropa The Dressing Room 2023 Glossy paper cut outs on paper 59.4 x 42 cm Tshepiso Moropa The Night Show 2023 Glossy paper cut outs on paper 59.4 x 42 cm Tshepiso Moropa Monna le Basadi Ba Babedi (The Man with Two Wives) 2023 Digital Video 01:44 min
FNB Art Joburg 2023
Eclectica Contemporary is pleased to present its showcase for this year's FNB Art Joburg Fair, which features artists from Southern, Western and North Africa, each of whom contribute significantly to the ongoing discourse surrounding contemporary African art.
